Word: kiribati
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...most Harvard students, dealing with climate change means changing desk lamps to energy-saving bulbs or recycling their class handouts. For the citizens of Kiribati, an island nation of 100,000 in the Pacific, it means a full-scale abandonment of the island and the eventual disintegration of their culture...
...Kiribati, which was once known as the Gilbert Islands, comprises 32 atolls—small coral islands—and one virtually unscalable rock island dispersed across 4,000 kilometers of the Pacific Ocean. Most of the land is situated at an elevation of less than two meters and is therefore particularly at risk from rises in sea-level caused by climate change...
...Over the last decade, rising sea levels have caused severe problems for Kiribati, including increasing high tides, harsher wave action, and coral breaching. Coupled with the scarce resources, a recent year-long drought, and exorbitant fuel and food prices that have crippled an already unstable economy, the newest crises promise to make the atolls uninhabitable in the near future...
...There has never been any discussion to date about what to do about the 100,000 people of Kiribati who will lose their country,” Tong said. “We made appeals in regional and international courts; I was reacting emotionally; I was shouting, and nobody was listening...
...Kiribati, in coordination with New Zealand and Australia, has begun to train citizens in skilled labor to fill jobs gabs in other countries and make their migration more “digestible...